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Much online social interaction occurs in a placeless domain -
there is no space to email, chats occur in metaphoric rooms but
their spatiality is quite abstract. Yet, as you read in last week's
Lakoff and Johnson assignment, we are fundamentally spatial - it
is difficult or impossible for us to imagine events occuring
"outside" a spatial "framework".
Thus, the idea of online systems that are literally spatial is quite
appealing. This week, we will look at ways of creating online
graphical spaces. |
assignment |
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- Read the papers.
- Explore Second
Life and Chat
Circles
Second Life is a large scale 3d online
environment with thousands of active users. Chat Circles is a
small experimental project (it was developed in a class much like
this) - if you want to have someone to talk to, it is a good idea
to arrange to log in at the same time as others in the class. The
point is not to directly compare them, but to give you the
experience of contrasting a literal, 3D site with an abstract 2D
site, though clearly Second Life is a far more extensive environment.
- Design your own space. We will be working on this for
a couple of weeks, with many variations, so this is just your
initial foray into thinking about these issues. Think about the
following questions:
- What do people look like? Do they determine their own
appearance or is it set by the system? A
- How do people move in the space
- What is the function of the space - shy would you move from
one place to another?
- How do people communicate?
- What forces act on the participants?
- Extra credit Find an interesting example of
an interactive graphical world that is not a large scale game a la
World of Warcraft. Describe it briefly and post the url.
Please link
your work by early afternoon on Wednesday.
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